The Stone of Madness
The Stone of Madness
Game
Game2025
Tower Dominion
Developer Parallel 45 Games
Build and design the terrain while defending your stronghold against alien invasion in this unique Roguelike tower defense. Choose from 30 heroes, survive enemy waves, and upgrade a variety of destructive towers to hold the line! From the Steam store page
315 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
75
LovedLoved
218 positive · 72 negative
95% range 70–80%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 218 | 72 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 9 | 0 | 13 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 3 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
2,604 of 3,026 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
75% recommend · 194 yes, 63 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 257 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (4,832 of 5,639 positive).
Many reviewers note that RNG can lead to frustrating, unfair losses. [1][2][3] Some players find the game enjoyable despite its balance issues. [4][5][6]
Liked
Representative posts
- [3]
Sadly I have to recommend no on this one as it is now. The game is cool, lots of characters and cool towers and stuff. But there's some weird balancing issues... I've had a few runs in a row now where I get to level 29 or 30 with no problem, not a single enemy damaging my command center. And then die within seconds on level 31. Feels like the enemy scaling is off, going from crushing it to getting completely …
- [12]
TLDR: Tower dominion is a very solid tower defense game with roguelike elements. It's one of the best games in the tower defense genre, I highly recommend it. Some of your losses will feel really unfair, so you have to be able to handle that. I have had zero crashes and performance is good on mid-range or higher hardware, details at the end. # UI Overall the UI never gets in your way and works well. I have some …
- [9]
Just from a sense of completion I played 55 hours just to get every character to beat five levels of 'nightmare' to get their badges uniform - and I'm still coming back to play more just for fun. It's a good game, even a great game for tower defense enthusiasts. This one allows for 'reverse mazing', e.g. you make each path merge into one, if you want to. No labyrinth possibility or 'walk over the same area multiple …
- [4]
A lot of people I see with negative reviews say they hate it because of the RNG element, and how even if you make a perfect defense, it can all come crumbling down with one bad wave roll. Me? I LIVE for that. Kingdom Rush and it's linear always-the-same wave progression that severely punishes you with the 2 stars of shame for even taking 1 damage can bite me. In this game, there's 3 factions with their own major …
- [1]
Enjoyable at normal challenge levels, but falls apart at maximum challenge. I can still recommend the game if you're not interested in going for the highest challenge and just want a fun roguelike - but if it bothers you that the end game is entirely RNG dependant, it won't be for you. It doesn't fall apart because it's just "too hard" but rather that victory stops being dependant on player skill and becomes …
Summarised from 34 of the 284 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Tower Dominion sits at 75% positive across 290 opinionated reactions from 3 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 315 · most liked firstSadly I have to recommend no on this one as it is now. The game is cool, lots of characters and cool towers and stuff. But there's some weird balancing issues... I've had a few runs in a row now where I get to level 29 or 30 with no problem, not a single enemy damaging my command center. And then die within seconds on level 31. Feels like the enemy scaling is off, going from crushing it to getting completely destroyed the very next one is very demoralizing and frustrating, especially after…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I honestly would prefer to recommend this game. But in good conscience, I can’t. You know that feeling when something great is handed to you—you really start to like it, enjoy it—and then, just when you want to use it more, you’re told, “No.” That’s exactly how I feel about this game. The core mechanics are great—so addictive. The roguelike elements mix really well: building your own maze, picking cards. It creates an amazing sense of strategy on many levels, without becoming overly…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It honestly feels like your chance on winning is based on RNG. Like you can have the best defense imaginable and still lose because the game threw a monster at you that you have zero or low counters against. I had fun when i played it first but playing it more and more have made me realize this game is flawed and unfun to play. not to say it cant be fun but the downsides bring it down. I recommend you buy another TD game instead of this one
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Had fun with this game for the first few hours as i learned how to play on the easier levels. Got really frustrated when i tried to beat the harder levels due to enemies, towers, perks, terrain all being tied to RNG and random enemy quantity spikes that you can't see coming and cannot prepare for. Here are a few scenarios that i have gone through, hope it helps someone get a better idea for what the game has in store: 1) Enemy selection is based on RNG and every few waves a new set of enemies…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tower Dominion is a slightly more polished but less replayable version of Rogue Tower. This could be a good game except: - Incredibly short, I beat tier 4 "War" difficulty and had every defense unlocked in barely 3 hrs, after that each game felt stale, same-ey, only guided by map randomness (see below) - The "Commander selection" screen is far inferior to the passive and unlocks tree we had in Rogue Tower. There, we could truly tune our gameplay and get numerous buffs. There's none of that in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really want to like this game, but the balance is so off on higher tiers. Getting one-shotted by an enemy on wave 32 with 22000 HQ HP is not a fun experience. Balancing needs some work. There's difference between challenge and stupid, and unfortunately the game leans to the latter.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Devs stopped work on the game with no meaningful content for months, because they want to port it to Mobile... Sad, because it had really great potential.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game was okay to play before the last update. The notes said it will now be more challenging, all they did was take away the possibility to obtain any good weapons. The best is if you make it too far in levels you just do not get any points for kills. This update made the game unplayable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just not fun. Player is too much at the mercy of RNG. You'll end up getting a bunch of "cards" for a stockpile of the SAME towers, but can't use them because of the serious resource limitations. There are a bunch of tower options in the game, you'll rarely seem them because of the poor RNG system spams the same towers over and over again. Then you'll lose more games than win them because of how few useful cards you get. The FUN part of tower defense games is being able to DO things in those…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game had a lot of potential as far as tower defenses go. But there are too many layers of RNG caked in.. You virtually have no control over your run. It's based off of shear luck on multiple fronts (Enemies you face, pathing you roll, upgrades/buildings rolled, etc.). You can't even pick the initial tile setup, before the RNG madness kicks off. So you can be stuck forfeiting/retrying 30+ times, until you get what you want for that run. If you are doing a run with a weaker faction…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Another cute little game that I almost disliked and uninstalled after just 20 min. I thought it was nearly unplayable with an incredibly low starting budget, weak towers, and so many enemies entering my base right at the beginning of wave one. :/ But giving it one more try helped me understand its mechanics better, as well as a few other basic things (like it's not all towers that shoot in every direction. lol!). And from that point-on, the game not only became playable, but quite interesting…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the game, but the RNG is insane on harder difficulties. 7/10 times the placement of the terrain will screw you over, rerolling costs a currency you only get through certain buildings... That is also decided via RNG.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a great idea, but the main premise of the game is broken and nobody around to fix it. Two main ideas behind this game: 1. Random future - this is great for making sure that every new game will be unique, but unfortunately there is no balance, so most games will not even be possible to win. 2. Build longest paths - nice idea, except it rarely works and game suddenly ends because the AI took the shortest path instead, completely breaking the whole idea behind this game. As it stands, it's a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →LAG LAG LAG. Don't get me wrong, this is a great TD game initially. Then just as things get interesting around lvl 70 the LAG sets in, and just gets worse until you cant place a building without quitting and restarting the game. This has to be done at every lvl at a certain point, and the lag is so bad that a single lvl takes hours frame by frame, even at the lowest frame rate and resolution. It seems like the Devs have done little to address this issue, which is a shame as it could be among…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been sititng on this review for a long time...I am annoyed by it, but by the same time I've put almost 150 hours (at time of writing) into it so something has to keep pulling me back in right? I think it's spite. It's not that the game doesn't have good things going for it: Commander, Stratagem and Tower synergies are fun, when they happen, and the artstyle is pleasing. But the game leans just too much into the randomness of it's Roguelite mechanics and I just can't give it the nod. The…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: Tower dominion is a very solid tower defense game with roguelike elements. It's one of the best games in the tower defense genre, I highly recommend it. Some of your losses will feel really unfair, so you have to be able to handle that. I have had zero crashes and performance is good on mid-range or higher hardware, details at the end. # UI Overall the UI never gets in your way and works well. I have some nitpicks, but none of them really take away from the game. * the game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enjoyable at normal challenge levels, but falls apart at maximum challenge. I can still recommend the game if you're not interested in going for the highest challenge and just want a fun roguelike - but if it bothers you that the end game is entirely RNG dependant, it won't be for you. It doesn't fall apart because it's just "too hard" but rather that victory stops being dependant on player skill and becomes entirely dependant on what the game offers you to use. Don't get offered any economy…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I think this is a good game, it's also very frustrating. The concept is great, and the gameplay is great. However, you can have a seemingly very good tower setup, but then the next wave wipes you out with no warning signs, and no time to prep. I'll go 25 consecutive waves without taking any damage at all, and then I'm completely overrun and killed on wave 26. It's very confusing, and very frustrating. I've also had many games where a particular wave almost kills me, but then the next 5…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just from a sense of completion I played 55 hours just to get every character to beat five levels of 'nightmare' to get their badges uniform - and I'm still coming back to play more just for fun. It's a good game, even a great game for tower defense enthusiasts. This one allows for 'reverse mazing', e.g. you make each path merge into one, if you want to. No labyrinth possibility or 'walk over the same area multiple times' kind of mazing, but it's good enough. Thumbs up, absolutely worth its…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Could be a good game if they would give the player some options(no forced crossroad tiles for example). Right now it's just frustrating RNG garbage.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great Game, but it urgendty needs a Replay-Last-Wave-Button since the descriptions of towers and weapons are... you might say nebulous?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been a big fan of the Tower Defense genre for over 20 years, and have played many, but this is without any doubt the best TD game I have ever played. It is still fun to start up another round even though I've accomplished everything the game has asked of me.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Seemingly more focused on forcing 'roguelike' RNG elements than on building a solid TD game. You can only build towers based on random cards you pull between waves, so you can spawn on a map, be given zero anti-air towers and then get heavily punished by air units that spawn three feet from your base because the map randomly generated itself to allow such cheese. It's a shame because there's some interesting ideas here but ultimately it's just too RNG reliant to be a compelling strategy game to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of people I see with negative reviews say they hate it because of the RNG element, and how even if you make a perfect defense, it can all come crumbling down with one bad wave roll. Me? I LIVE for that. Kingdom Rush and it's linear always-the-same wave progression that severely punishes you with the 2 stars of shame for even taking 1 damage can bite me. In this game, there's 3 factions with their own major gameplay gimmicks, 10 playable characters in each (adding to 30), all with very…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a dad who can’t really commit to PvP games anymore, I’ve always gravitated back to tower defense being a 90s kid, I’ve played a ton of them (Starcraft, tons of tower defence games on the phone). This one really stands out. The path-building mechanics, different factions, and wide range of upgrades give it serious replay value. It also caters to both casual players and experienced RTS fans by allowing you to create 1–4 routes, which adds flexibility and strategic depth. Between planning…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The only Tower Defense that I feel has the right amount of challenge and replayability without exhausting its mechanics. Awesome! Four thumbs up!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I haven't seen other roguelite tower defense games do what Tower Dominion does. It plays with elevation, which isn't new, but it does it really well. It has "tile-mazing" (or mazing-lite, if you prefer), which isn't new, but it does it really well. It plays with various tower sizes and shapes, which isn't new, but it does it well. It has different heroes belonging to 3 factions which isn't new, but it does it well. It has branching upgrades for each tower where each one has multiple roles it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game reignited my love for tower defense after I'd completely burnt out on the genre 👌 It's incredibly easy to pick up but takes time to truly master. Every run feels rewarding, and there's always a new strategy or build to try. My only real complaint is that I wish it were a little better optimised for the Steam Deck. Once you get into the later waves, performance can start to struggle. Other than that, it's an easy recommendation for any TD enjoyer!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The core game loop is fun and I like the graphics but the game needs serious balancing. It is really unpredictable. You are doing great and then all of a sudden one wave has such an insane spike in health/damage that it just overruns you. And sometimes it is enough for two enemies to reach your base to destroy it, which is also not that fun in my opinion. You should have the opportunity to patch up a weak path before you get destroyed out of nowhere
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Super fun tower defense game. I know that a lot of people says that the difficulty setting still needs polishing, and that is true: you can get destroyed by a crazy random wave of enemies. But to me, that only adds a layer of excitement on top. The gameplay is polished and there is so much content to explore. SO yeah, I really love this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This could be a great game, but as you play it really comes down to RNG and are you lucky enough to get certain towers/paths/enemies - more strategy less luck would be better
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Been on a real tower defence game kick lately, with Tower Dominion, Nordhold and Emberward. Know they’re not a particularly “big popular” genre, but if anyone has any suggestions for other cute, quirky ones do let me know! :>
positive · AI labelView post →Glad I got to play this for free before purchase and I got all the data I need about this game so here's the pros and cons PROS - lots of commanders to choose from - lots of towers and weapon combinations to choose from and that's about it Cons - only about 22 foes and 11 bosses total I can't recommend this game because there's not much enemy variety. After completing the first game at level 1 difficulty I seen 9 foes and 1 boss, that's about half the roster of enemies in this game. Later…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great fun but I wish it were more endless than it is. I'd love to spend hours building a huge base but the enemy is just too powerful no matter if you've fully upgraded and have a ton of resources. Doesn't feel fair.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game, but the power spikes are just too random. Got to Frontier+4 and I think I have enough. Pros: - generally fun - quick paced - variety of towers and strategies - clean, readable, easy to learn - graphics is nice Cons: - power spikes! You are winning winning winning until you're suddenly losing 100% hp for no reason. Can't really predict it, or do anything about it. Flip of a coin. - rng is pretty tough in this game - levels seem weirdly balanced,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Before update 1.66, it was great, challenging but still can manage to overcome, now after the updates, there's barely anything i tried could lived through difficulty 3. Previously before update i can endured difficulty 5. So i'm not sure what you are trying to prove from your end, are you pushing a "vision"? The game with RNG alone has many issues already, i do hope to see more variety content instead of nerfing stuff down. Game is pretty awesome honestly, but with the current…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't really get all the negativity this game gets. It's fun. RNG is not a big deal - played a couple runs on level 3. ... I'm sure I'll put several more hours into this game at least.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like this game a lot, but... detection is just such a badly designed mechanic. There is so few ways to get detection, and a random unexpected stealth unit getting added in a future wave can suddenly screw you completely so that it feels like you have to design every run around it. But it's a worthless stat if you don't encounter stealth units. Moreover, it's worthless even AGAINST stealth units, since it doesn't force the tower to prioritize stealth units. Overall, I love the game, but…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has excellent content. The production value is high, the art is lovely, and the concepts are pretty interesting. I enjoyed it. So why can't I recommend it? Well, it's extremely poorly balanced, and gets worse the higher you go with it. Insert queue of fedora-tipping non-neurotypical keyboard warriors to rush in and defend the game with their "trololololol u just suk git gud". It's true, though. Having played it, there are frustrating jumps in difficulty at a variety of points,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good news! 🎉 Valve has officially approved Tower Dominion as Steam Deck-compatible. ✅ That means you can now play the full game smoothly on the go. No extra setup needed, just launch and play! 🚀 Let us know how it feels in handheld mode! 🎮 #TowerDominion #steamdeck #Steam #IndieGame
neutral · AI labelView post →Tower Dominion 8/10 great DT Tower Dominion stands out by allowing players to design the enemy's path, including directional tiles and elevation changes, adding a strategic layer to the traditional tower defense mechanics. Players can choose from three distinct factions. Each faction offers unique leaders with different abilities, enhancing replayability. The game features a variety of units and structures, each with multiple upgrade paths, and the elevation mechanics play a crucial role in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tower Dominion is out on Switch, PlayStation and Xbox The roguelike tower defense game hits consoles a year after its PC debut, bringing modular map building and 30 heroes to new platforms. #Retro #indiegames #strategygames #nintendoswitch #xbox
neutral · AI labelView post →pretty fun game, but could use with ways to manage your towers targeting... annoys me when they keep targeting the wrong units. I bought the game, even though I will likely beat it before the free weekend is over, to support the devs. Yes it sucks when RNG screws you over but more often than not you are able to salvage it if one level 1 or 2 even if the RNG gives you crap, at the higher levels it can make or break your game though.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Whether you enjoy or despise this game is entirely dependent on RNG. As in, nearly everything is randomized (what resources you get, what buildings you can places, what path tiles you are given, etc), BUT, not in a way that is minimally balanced. You can die to flier swarms on round 3 without anything to avail you. Strong pass.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very fun Tower Defense, but the difficulty just feels way too high. To the point where in some runs I don't know how I could have possibly done any better but still lost.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overpriced for the gameplay you're getting. The commanders are not balanced and there's a lot of starting positions which are genuinely unplayable, forcing a person to reset until they find one which actually will survive past wave 10.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty solid TD. RNG is kind of annoying. Maybe there's better strats to deal with it, but it does seem pretty swingy on the roll of the layout and the unlocks you find, particularly in the first few waves of a level 3-4 game. The initial layout being random is, I think, a little overboard and led to me just rerolling maps until I got a layout that was a good start. Aside from the early-game RNG issue, the game's pretty delightful. Towers are well enough balanced and there's a ton of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Awesome game, super chill and relaxing, perfect after work and not too easy also so it's not boring 👌
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Because I got kinda bored of VOTV, I'm now playing Tower Dominion - a really cool roguelike tower defense game I've been addicted to! www.twitch.tv/docvivileandra
positive · AI labelView post →It's got a solid base, but runs feel so samey and it's more of a roguelike than a roguelite. I don't feel a compelling tug to keep doing new runs in this one.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Like pretty much every negative review says, Your runs are completely controlled by RNG. The higher the difficulty, the more it kills your runs. It really feels like ♥♥♥♥ making it to the end of a difficulty 4 run with ZERO detection enemies only to have the last threat be a detection enemy. There also desperately needs to be some type of reroll mechanic for the building/doctrine screen.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This ♥♥♥♥ just sucks, don't buy it. It is entirely impossible to predict where the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ aliens are going when there's more than one lane, making it extremely hard to defend with your limited resources and towers. The camo enemies are cancerous, the shield enemies are ass and altogether the difficultly is screwed. You can't make your towers target certain enemies (camo, strongest, last ect) like in better tower defense games. This game is just ♥♥♥♥ and every update has made it slightly worse…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Meh, too RNG. No meta progression, nothing to customize, just reacting to RNG and the RNG increases the more you progress and unlock stuff... good idea poor execution
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tower Dominion is a fun tower defense game with roguelike elements. I'm always a fan of a good TD game and I think this is one of the better ones. The game uses the typical gameplay of TD games, you build towers to defend yourself against waves of enemies, killing enemies generates money so you can buy more towers but you also have some passive income each round that also helps. After each wave you get a selection of three different offers, these offers include buildings, passive items called…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A great take and my go to for tower defense! Great variety without becoming overwhelming. The three biomes each have unique challenges and each commander has cool perks that prevents playing round after round from being monotonous. I can see myself always coming back to this for a guaranteed great tower defense experience.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not gonna lie, I did a bit of... morally dubious activities to acquire this game previously... But it's too good to NOT pay for it. So yeah I bought the fancy special pack because these peeps deserve it, very great game. Also hard as hell, very hectic beyond difficulty 2, and VERY luck based. But boy, does it feel amazing when everything lines up. Only one problem... Why is the title theme not in the soundtrack?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've found this game to scratch my tower defence itch quite a bit. There's enough content revealled throughout numerous play-throughs that it's thoroughly enjoyable even if it can get VERY challenging.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game is very poorly balanced on anything above 1 entry point. Theres no meta progression either so theres no way to upgrade the more you play, everything relies on rng during the missions, not only with weapons and bonuses but also with terrain making a successful run very low odds on higher entry point missions.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Simple to learn, endlessly replayable. Path-building and varied commanders make every run feel fresh. One of the most addictive tower-defense games I’ve played in years.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very fun and addicting TD. You can create your own maze as you play. Many commanders, 3 distinct battlegroups to choose from.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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